Salted Peanut Nutella Puppy Chow

Remember when I told you that my Salted Triple Caramel Cupcakes are described as “the best thing we’ve ever had” by a few of my friends? Well, they’re still the best. But now they have some fierce Nutella competition.

The reason I’m posting puppy chow recipes so often recently? Because we love the stuff! And I know you do too. Sitting on the couch on a lazy weekend night watching terrible reality TV with friends is the perfect excuse to make it. And that’s how I’ve been spending my weekend nights recently. I’ve told you before, I’m boring. It’s much too cold outside! Puppy chow saves the day.

Puppy chow is also called Muddy Buddies. I grew up calling it puppy chow but sometimes I’m caught calling it muddy buddies. Both names are fun to say.

So here we go. A Nutella version, what else would you expect? But not just Nutella… a kicked up chocolate-y Nutella version with salty peanuts. I’m a salty/sweet freak. Who’s with me?

First, you’re going to melt some butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat. 1 whole stick of salted butter – no diet food today. Unsalted butter would work just fine here. To be honest, I couldn’t tell the difference making it with salted or unsalted. So, go with whatever you have on hand.

Next, add the good stuff. You know what I’m talking about.

Ohhhh yeah. Just gimme a spoon and I’d be all set. 🙂

With the butter, you’re going to add a very generous cup of Nutella to the saucepan. The amount I used turned out to be 1 full cup plus a few extra Tablespoons. I obviously couldn’t stop spooning it into the saucepan. It left me with just a couple servings left in a standard 13 oz jar.

Once the butter and Nutella are smooth and completely melted, add a pinch of salt. Nutella is incredibly sweet by itself (no complaints here!) and since we’re going for a salty/sweet snack here, I added a small 1/4 teaspoon of table salt to the mixture – which isn’t much at all.

Ok, now get ready for a big pour. Stream the glorious chocolate/butter glory all over a big bowl of Rice Chex cereal and salty peanuts. 6 cups of cereal and 1 and 1/4 cup of peanuts. I used honey roasted peanuts today but you really can use any peanut that you’d like. The peanuts were my favorite part of the chow!

Don’t you just want to dive right in?!?!

Next, it’s time to stir it all up. Be gentle here, you don’t want to crush the cereal. The warm Nutella mixture is much thinner than the coating I used for my Cupcake Puppy Chow, which is made from butter and white chocolate melts. Today’s coating will be easier to mix around on those innocent cereal squares and peanuts.

Once everything is sufficiently showered with Nutella, transfer the cereal to a very large zipped-top bag holding 2 cups of powdered sugar. Shake shake shake til you can’t shake no more and dose each bite with some sweet stuff.

So there ya go. Wasn’t all of that easy and even better – wasn’t that quick? A HUGE dose of Nutella in the best snacky way. Combined with crunchy cereal, sweet snowy sugar, and salty peanuts. You do not want to leave out the peanuts! Covered in chocolate-y Nutella, they are most definitely the best part about this chow.

I speak from experience when I say that “one bite” of today’s snack is not enough. “One taste” is not enough. “One small bowl” is not enough. Heck, even a huge bowl is not enough. {embarrassing.} My friends begged me to make more! Trust me, you will NOT be able to put this stuff down.

And I know that a snack like this would be perfect for Superbowl Sunday. I don’t know about you, but I love the Superbowl for the commercials and for the munchies. But this year will be a little different. We live in Baltimore, sooooo you know I’ll be tuning in for the actual game too. 🙂

What are your favorite game-day snacks? I hope puppy chow is included!

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat, melt the butter and Nutella. Stir constantly until smooth. Add salt. Remove from heat.

Pour the peanuts and cereal into a large bowl. Top with warm Nutella mixture and gently mix it around to coat each piece of cereal.

In a large zipped top bag or covered container, add the powdered sugar. Pour the Nutella covered cereal into the large bag or container. Seal the bag or container and shake until all the cereal is coated with the powdered mixture.

Discard excess powder and enjoy. Store at room temperature up to 2 weeks.

130 Comments

Before I discovered your fabulous blog Sally I had never even heard of puppy chow or muddy buddies. Well now all the people close to me will know what it is because I’ll be making this stuff all the time! Oh my goodness. At first I told myself I’d only allow myself a handful but eating it sitting in front of a movie I ate myself sick! Highly addictive. I love that its no bake and that I can quickly whip it up on movie night. As always when I’m in the kitchen I screw up one way or the other and I used beer nuts in this. lol. I was going to get honeyroasted but the beer nuts were on sale and looked delicious so I increased the salt to half a teaspoon, and i haven’t had Nutella in years and was so excited by that that I used too much. Also Chex isn’t easy to find where I live so I used Kellogg’s Crispix which appeared to be the same. I won’t make these same mistakes again when I make it for the next time but regardless it was still to die for. Thanks Sally!

Hey Heather! I know, this stuff is so addicting! I’m so glad you made it and that you are a puppy chow/muddy buddy lover like me now. And it is SO easy to make, which I love so much! Let me know if you make any other recipes from my site. Thank you so much for reporting back Heather! Have a great day. 🙂

Hi Sally!
That looks crazy good, and I really want to try it, but I live in Brazil and we dont have this kind of cereal here. Do you have any sugestions that could make a good substitute?
Thanks a lot,
Clara

Hey, Sally! You’ve inspired me to make my very own puppy chow, I didn’t have the ingredients to make any of your mouth-watering puppy chow recipes, but I had something. I mixed 3 1/2 C honey nut chex and 3/4 C unsalted cashews and set aside in a bowl. Melted 1/2 tbsp milk, 1 1/2 C dark chocolate chips, 1/2 C PB, and a pinch of salt in a sauce pan and immediately added to the chow, mixed alllll arrrouund, then after that mixed in 3/4 C powdered sugar. YUM!!!

Hi Sally
I was googling for no bake recipes and found your website.
All recipes look tasty. Especially puppy chows!
However, I am out of the states, so not able to get rice chex :'(
so.. do you think I am able to use pretzels instead of rice chex or golden grahams?
Thanks for reading. I’ll bookmark your blog and visit sometimes 🙂

I made this a couple weeks ago for my son’s birthday party. Last year I did the S’mores version, and it was AWESOME! I thought this was just as fabulous. Unfortunately (for my waistline), there was a lot left! I have no idea if people weren’t sure about it, or what. But it’s SO GOOD. For me, it’s a tie between the S’mores and the Salted Nutella puppy chows…it’s war!

Sally, I pinned this recipe awhile ago, and I was waiting to make it for some event. I took it to a party, and it was a hit! I wouldn’t have cared if no one liked it, because I ate so much of it while making it! It is unbelievably good. But everyone adored it. Who doesn’t love Nutella or salty or sweet snacks!

thank you for all your wonderful recipes. I can’t wait to try so many of them. You are a very talented young lady..thank you for all the hard work you put into your site. I have shared it with many of my cooking friends. I once again want to say thank you..sometimes the hard work that it takes to make a site like this goes unnoticed.. God Bless always…

I made a different Nutella-based puppy chow earlier this year. It was a mess! And – not enough Nutella! *GASP* But my husband’s office wanted it again for their Thanksgiving party. Your recipe was the perfect solution! I took the lazy way out, though. I dumped the entire jar of Nutella in w/ the stick of salted butter, then dumped that over the whole box of Crispex (what I had on hand) & subbed a bag of tiny pretzel twists for peanuts. I also swapped 1/2 cup of cocoa powder for 1/2 cup of the confectioner’s sugar to up the chocolatey goodness. After coating, I wasn’t sure there’d be enough to go around, so I *ahem* threw in a bag of dark chocolate M&Ms. They’ve already submitted their Christmas party request!

Made these using buttery snaps pretzels instead of peanuts and was very tasty when it was freshly made and warm—especially the pretzels…tasted exactly like a chocolate cake donut with that milk or water and confectioners sugar icing swirled on it. The next day it wasn’t so tasty so I would make it just as you’re needing it (that day)…didn’t taste like Nutella at all, for those of you who don’t like Nutella….B+

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I’m Sally, a cookbook author, photographer, and blogger. My goal is to give you the confidence and knowledge to cook and bake from scratch while providing quality recipes and plenty of pictures. Grab a cookie, take a seat, and have fun exploring! more about Sally